Britain’s army of bankers will re-ignite public fury over lavish pay rewards as staff at Goldman Sachs are expected to reward themselves £8.3 billion in bonuses on Wednesday.

The American investment bank, which employs 5,500 staff in the UK, will be the first to unveil its telephone number-sized rewards – an average of £250,000 a person – as part of the latest round of bonus updates.

The increase, up from £230,000 last year, comes as British families are still struggling to make ends meet five years after banks brought the economy to the brink of meltdown.

Calls for restraint by politicians, who have used taxpayers cash to bailout many of the banks, have fallen on deaf ears.

At taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group, which is expected to make a loss this year, its boss is likely to be entitled to a multimillion-pound bonus.